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Published: July 20th 2010
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We arrived in Cuzo on Wednesday the 14th in the afternoon after an 18 hour bus ride from Ica, and loaded up on mate de coca. Both Sim and I didn´t sleep very well on the bus because the road was so curvy and the full camas were a bit smaller than our first 1st class bus ride. However, after our coca tea, we ventured out into the city in search of lunch...We found a place near our hostel when Sim tried sopa criolla (noodles and egg) and ajì de gallina, which is a nice chicken dish. I wanted to try ajì de gallina, but not get the same thing as Sim so I got the vegetable soup and pollo de curry--bad decision to order non-peruvian food at a peruvian place. However, with food in our bellies, we were more energized and decided to explore the city a little bit while the sun was still shining. The Plaza de Armas was a gorgeous center square, where they definitely don´t let you forgetyou´re in Peru with all the Peruvian flags hanging up. After perusing the city a little bit more and Sim looking a EVERY menu, we returned to our hostel for
tea and a good nights sleep.
The next day (Thursday) we decided to talk to a few more tour agencies about tours to Machu Picchu involving Huchuy Cosqo, because Erik from Andina Travel pretty much sold us both on the unique experience we would get--however, it would be at a minimum cost of $360 (if 2 mor ppl joined the trek) versus $150 for the traditional jungle trek so I struggled with that factor considering our weekly budget has been $300 and the Huchuy Cosqo trek was only 3 days.
In the afternoon we did the city tour visiting Templo Inka K'oricancha, Sacsayhuaman, Q'enqo, Pucapucara and Tambomachay. We learned so much about how intelligent the Inca people were. For example, they built all of their structure with solely stone and no mortar. They were able to achieve this by first carving each stone into a hook-and-eye shape so they would fit together like puzzle pieces. Moreover, to make their walls anti-seismic, they made little holes in each block and filled them with small pebbles and sand so that when an earthquake occurred,all the sand moved in one direction, allowing the wall to remain erect. Insane! This is why
the Inca structures have survived all the earthquakes that Peru has experienced. The stories of sacrifice and superstition were also absolutely incredible. We really enjoyec the tour, but we got really cold by the end of the tour because the sun went down and we were at 3,780 meters at the last ruin.
When we got back to Cuzco, we rushed back to Andina Travel to see if 2 more people joined the tour--luckily one more did join so the price went down to $380. To save a little more money we opted out of the nice hotel in Aguas Calientes and the bus to/from Machu Picchu, and which my student ID I only paid $341. I was still a little upset that I gave into Simonne´s luxury yet again, but I was relieved that we didn´t have to pay $400+. After having our quick pre-trek briefing over the phone with our guide, Jonathan, we bought some snacks for our last trek day when we wouldn´t be provided with food, and then back to El Arcano (our hostel) to pack for our trek beginning early the next morning.
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